Community Voices: Residents should recognize the value of...

1of 7Asia Ciaravino is CEO of The Play- house San Antonio.Photo: /Courtesy San Pedro Playhouse

2of 7Constanza Aileen played the virtuous orphan Rosa Bud in the Playhouse San Antonio staging of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."Photo: Courtesy Siggi Ragnar

3of 7Carlye Elyse Gossen played the mysterious -- and possibly murderous -- Helena Landless in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" at The Playhouse San Antonio.Photo: Courtesy Siggi Ragnar

4of 7Rick Sanchez played Neville Landless in The Playhouse San Antonio's staging of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."Photo: Courtesy Siggi Ragnar

5of 7Michael Holley (from left) and Andrew Thornton starred in "Of Mice and Men" in the Cellar Theater of The Playhouse San Antonio.Photo: Courtesy Siggi Ragnar

6of 7The opening number of "Grease," at The Playhouse San Antonio this summer, had guys and gals giving very different versions of a summer encounter.Photo: Courtesy Siggi Ragnar

7of 7The Playhouse San Antonio.Photo: /Courtesy photo

Our city is unquestionably rich with culture. We value our diversity, our history. Yet, as we look to the future of the performing arts in our great city, we must challenge past and current trends. Consider: When recruiting corporate headquarters to expand or relocate to our city, our response to their request for arts and culture to keep their creative class in this city is passive. “We have art here and artists. Just see things at the Majestic or Tobin.”

While these organizations host wonderful performances, their art is by and large from out of town. We need to strengthen our producing arts organizations, keeping and using local talent. We value art as a community, yet we seem unwilling to support professional artists on a corporate, foundation or individual basis. We, as arts organizations, receive funding from these entities but not at a level to support artists at a living wage, driving the exceptional talent we have to other more supportive markets or forcing them to sustain themselves in other fields and relegating their passions, their talents, to their hobbies.

We let go of our homegrown talent without a second thought instead of creating work for them here. Why, I ask, is paying an artist a living wage so scary? Does it give them too much power? Or do we only like the idea of a flourishing, well-rounded arts community but fear the work it would take?

Consider what a community educated about the value of theater in our lives might look like. A community that believes there is nothing so powerful as the experience of witnessing storytelling in a dark room told by professional theater artists. Visualize a city where art is valued with the same passion that medicine, industry, business and hospitality are. That can be our 2050. An amphitheater in a downtown park welcomes thousands. The stands are filled with people anticipating a night of thought-provoking theater, willingly powering down and tucking away personal electronics and communication devices, excited to plug into something that is real, something alive. The actors, production team and designers are professionals, paid a professional wage, with the ability to stay in shape physically and vocally, and rehearse a proper eight-hour day in preparation for performances. They are trained in our universities, intern at our regional theater — the best in the country — and eventually become part of our professional company of actors, employed year-round. During their days they are in our schools, teaching master classes and working with the corporate community to train executives on public speaking and creative strategic planning. They are the leaders of our creative community. Performance and storytelling are being used in schools to explain history, English, math and science. Children are learning inside and outside of the classroom about working toward a goal, creative problem-solving, self-confidence, taking risks. They’re working in museums, theaters and art galleries alongside artists who help them understand what empathy is and how listening gives you all the answers you need. That should be our 2050.

From education to expression to entertainment, theater is the best road map to developing the creative class. Won’t you have the courage to start that journey?